Checkmate
by Jamjari
Summary: [AU] His eyes were really blue, resembling the sea and the sky in all their serenity, just like Sora’s eyes. The thing was, this boy’s eyes held a bit of sorrow, unlike Sora’s everhappy, shining ones. [Roxiri] [2shot]
1. The Girl

**- CHECKMATE -**  
_a Roxiri story by Jamjari_

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor any of its characters.

_Pairings:_ **Roxas/Kairi**; onesided Kairi/Sora; Sora/?

**x Kairi POV x**

* * *

Over the summer, I volunteered over at the local hospital. It was just something that I thought I ought to do. After all, I was leading a pretty happy life and very content with what I had, while all these people were suffering inside this building. 

There was a room I was assigned, and I was the caretaker of the people in that room. It was a pretty easy job, and none of the patients – who varied from little kids to handicapped grandpas – were demanding. The tasks were usually about playing with them, hearing them tell stories from their lives, bringing them food or water, or just talking to them. It was a lively room overall, and most of the people were well enough to tend to themselves.

However, there was one particular boy who was quiet. It wasn't an anti-social type of quiet, though. It was simply the kind of quiet that calmness and tranquility exuded from. The bed he occupied was the one at the corner, next to the window. Since the curtains were always pulled to cover the space, I didn't even know there was a person in that bed until a nurse came over to give him some medication during one of my hours. I figured he didn't want to be bothered. Then one day, I just figured I would go out of my normal routine to greet him. After all, I didn't want to be a stranger to the patients around here.

When I entered, the blond boy was sitting upright on his bed, blue eyes staring. His eyes were really blue, resembling the sea and the sky in all their serenity, just like Sora's eyes. The thing was, this boy's eyes held a bit of sorrow, unlike Sora's ever-happy, shining ones. I guess it was his eyes that drew me to him in the first place, because they reminded me of Sora. Sora, whom I had a crush on. He also happened to be around Sora and my age, too. So I thought I'd try to make friends with him.

Giving a bright grin, I leaned toward his bed, fingers twined at my back. "Nice to meet you…" I eyed the name on the board at the edge of his bed. "…Roxas. I'm Kairi. Sorry for barging in. I volunteer hours here."

"Nice to meet you too." His words were calm and collected, too. Then came the question. "Would you like to play chess with me?"

I blinked. That was out of the blue. Then, smiling, I accepted. "Alright. But I'll warn you, I'm pretty good." I was pretty confident in my skills.

He didn't seem stirred a bit by my words. Instead, he reached over to a suspended rack by him and pulled down a chess board along with the pieces. I drew up a stool and sat on it, and we set up the game board at the edge of the bed.

Wordlessly, we played out a game. He lost.

Then we went for a rematch. He lost.

And again. He lost.

And again. He lost.

He didn't give up. He didn't seem bothered about his losing streak either, he just kept playing. I considered letting him win once on purpose, but I could kind of tell that he was one of those people who would take it as an insult if you let off easy.

Just as we were setting up the pieces for another go, a nurse came in to say that they had to take Roxas away for a scheduled check-up. I nodded, and we exchanged goodbyes as he was taken out of his bed, placed on a wheelchair, and pushed out of the room. I stayed behind and cleaned up.

The next day, I came to the hospital for volunteering again. I visited Roxas at his bed fist thing. He greeted me, and asked, "Would you like to play chess with me?"

I agreed and we set ourselves up just like the day before, before resuming the game. It was like déjà vu. We kept playing and playing, and he kept losing and losing. It was this day that I realized why he was losing. He focused on using the pawns, bishops, and knights, and tried to keep from moving the king, queen, and rooks. Maybe he was afraid of losing them, I don't know. But it always led to his loss in the end.

I didn't mention it, however. I didn't want to be rude and possibly hurt him by telling that his way of playing was a no-go.

This continued for a few more weeks. Everyday, it would be:

"Would you like to play chess with me?"

And he'd lose every single time, because he never changed his plays around.

Then school started. I wasn't able to visit the hospital anymore, because I was so busy with school work. I just stopped going, with no warning. My eyes were set on Sora and Sora alone, because he was the only one who could draw out a true smile from me. I was a bubbly girl full of laughter, giggles, and smiles; but it was just a façade. Sora was the only one who could truly make me laugh.

As time went on, my adoration for Sora grew and grew. One day, I decided to take a chance and ask him out. After all, I was fairly confident, because he was my best friend and all. Oh boy, was I wrong. This was the gist of it:

"Hey Sora?" I asked, playing with my fingers as the two of us sat by a tree after school.

"Hmm?" He replied, tilting his head over toward me with those big, blue eyes of his. The face of the person whom Roxas reminded me of.

I bit my lip, then pressed the words out of my mouth. "Would you… like to go out with me?"

He sat silent for a while. Fear knotted in my stomach, and I tried to explain in a vague fashion. "W-well, we're best friends, and we know each other really well, and I love you… er… more than anyone else… so I wanted to try it out, you know?"

Sora looked down at his lap, before slowly replying, "Well… I like you and all, but... You see, I already have someone." He looked back up, with sincere concern. "I'm sorry, Kairi. And, wouldn't it be better for us to just stay friends?"

"O-oh. That's alright. Y-you're right." I responded, but my voice cracked. I guess Sora couldn't bear seeing me like that, because he stood up immediately saying he had to attend to some things, before leaving.

I was heartbroken.

After two days or so, I decided to go back to the hospital. Helping out others less fortunate than me, I thought, would help bring my spirits back up. Maybe I could forget Sora.

It helped a lot, playing with kids and bringing water to the elderly again. However, my gaze fell more often then not on that secluded bed in the corner, curtained from the rest of the room. Before I knew it, my feet were carrying me over to that section, and moved through the curtains to come face to face with Roxas.

He seemed surprised, brows lifting ever so slightly and eyes widening. For some reason, at first glance, he looked drained, pale, and fragile. But when he looked up at me, and confirmed that he wasn't dreaming by pinching his cheek, that weakness was gone in the blink of an eye, and he looked healthy as ever. I concluded that I must've been hallucinating.

He looked so much like Sora. He reminded me of Sora. Just seeing the boy made my heart ache. I gave him a feeble smile.

"Would you like to play chess with me?"

I was taken back by the question. Then I gave him another smile. Some things never change.

So we settled down, set up the chess board (which I noticed, had collected some dust that we had to wipe off), and started the game. I was expecting to win, expecting him to use the same tactics. But something seemed to have changed, since I suddenly noticed that I was losing. He was switching pieces from move to move, incorporating the queen, the king, and rooks into the play, and when I backed him up into difficult corners, he always found a way out. It was an amazing game, and he had completely crushed me. I sat there, shocked, as he muttered, "Checkmate."

I looked up at him in disbelief, where another surprise was waiting. He had a bright smile on his face, perhaps brighter than Sora's.

"Kairi, sometimes when things don't go your way and you don't win, you have to change ways a bit. Choose another piece, maybe. Because there's plenty of choices on the board."

He must've read my mind, because that was just what I needed to hear. I grinned back at him, despite myself, and my broken heart was mending itself again.

The nurse came in, warmly greeted me, and told Roxas that he had to go see the doctor. I helped her get him into the wheelchair, and muttered to him, "Thank you, Roxas."

He grinned. His smile was so heartwarming, and it made me want to melt. "No problem. When we see each other again, you better bring me some ice cream. I love ice cream."

"Oh, yeah… About that…" I rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm sorry about stopping my hospital visits without telling you. I had school… you know, the works. I won't do it ever again. Sorry."

"Forgiven."

"I'll come by tomorrow. I promise." I sealed it by hooking my pinky with his, and pressing our thumbs together.

He nodded and smiled again. "I'll be waiting."

I smiled as the nursed pushed him out of the room, and reflected upon the boy's words. He was right. There were a lot of pieces to pick from on the board.

Forget Sora. I had _**Roxas**._

* * *

**A/N: **Kind of random and all, just off the top of my head. This is actually a two-shot. (: And for those who are wondering who Sora is with, you could decide for yourself 

I'll get the next part up ASAP. So feedback, please!


	2. The Boy

**- CHECKMATE -  
**_a Roxiri story by Jamjari_

**x Roxas POV x**

* * *

_I used to watch her._

We used to go to the same elementary school, she and I. We were never friends, though. I was a quiet kid, and I rarely spoke unless spoken to. I never paid attention to anything or anyone, making me a sort of outcast, I suppose.

It was all because one person stole away my attention. Her name was Kairi.

She always hung out with that other kid Sora. I doubt she even knew of my existence then, but I admired her from afar, watching her laughing and goofing off with Sora. He always brought out her true smile, which was a brilliant and beautiful thing. It used to make my heart flutter so, and I always envied Sora for being able to draw that from her. He was the only one who could, as far as I could tell.

Was it sadness that I felt back then? Envy or self-loathing? Because whenever I saw Kairi's beautiful smile and I spotted Sora to her side, my heart clenched. I knew that she would always be his.

When we graduated, I was supposed to move onto the same middle school as her. But just before I had officially moved in, I got into a terrible car accident, which basically crushed my legs and rendered me immobile. It also dealt a lot of damage to my ribcage, which in turn delivered near-fatal blows and caused problems to my heart, making it fail to work properly. I would have been dead if I wasn't sped off to the hospital quickly.

Months of extensive surgeries and an artificial heart transplant later, I was well and off again, though my legs forever lost their power to stand and walk around. I was now to live inside the hospital, because of my handicap and for frequent checkups and maintenance on my "heart". The strangest thing was that the artificial heart didn't give a pulse. No heartbeat, but I was still living. Well, I wasn't so sure if staying cooped inside a hospital was actually considered "living", but I stuck to it anyway.

My days went by, slowly but surely, as I sat there in my bed surrounded by curtains. I didn't speak with the other patients in the room much. So, I devoted most of my time on chess, a game I enjoyed and was already skilled at. I used to be the statewide chess champion, after all. The game helped me put my mind at ease, making it blissfully ignorant of everything else in the world, and served as a relaxing, time-consuming pastime.

When I first heard that a volunteer named Kairi was going to be the caretaker of this room, I didn't know what to make of it. I doubted it was the same Kairi I had known and secretly admired before, but when she arrived, I knew it was her. It was her voice that I heard from the other side of the curtain, speaking softly to the elderly patients and laughing with the children. I wanted to run out and say hi; to see her face again. But I couldn't budge an inch from my bed, and both my pride and fear kept me from requesting to see her.

But one day, Kairi dropped by to my corner.

I was surprised, and my artificial heart skipped a beat when I saw her again. She gave me an awkward smile, and was the first to speak. "Nice to meet you…" I saw her eyes shift to the edge of my bed, where my name was displayed. "…Roxas. I'm Kairi."

My spirit dropped a bit, as she went on further apologizing and explaining who she was. She didn't remember me. Sure, that was expected, but it still upset me. She didn't even say, "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" or "You look familiar." Of course, I was but a miniscule speck in Kairi's life.

I snapped out of it, and returned her greeting. I didn't know what else to say. I was never much of a conversationalist, after all. But I didn't want Kairi to leave. I wanted to keep her at my side. So I asked her to play a game of chess with me.

I lost purposely, multiple times. I didn't want her to leave. I thought that if I won, she would've left, thinking that there was no need to go on. I know it was selfish and rotten of me, but I kept losing anyway. I knew that Kairi was a kind girl, and wouldn't leave if I acted as though I really wanted to win a game against her. And I knew that I could use her pity to get her to return every day. I also knew that she wouldn't purposely lose to me, either.

Day after day, visit after visit, we kept playing chess. She had brightened up my monotone lifestyle in the hospital just with her presence. I made myself lose every single time, by handicapping myself to absurd limits, just to get her to stay. Just to get her to come back the next day.

But one day, she didn't come back. I waited and waited, but no Kairi.

This went on for weeks, and my life slowly returned to what it was before, with me sitting in my bed alone, playing chess to myself. Except now, it hurt so much more.

Could it have gotten any worse? It did. After one of my scheduled checkups, the doctor told me that my body was beginning to reject the artificial mechanism that was pumping life into me. They didn't know any way to stop it, and they tried everything they can. Finally, they dropped the bad news on me, saying that I only had a month left to live. I laughed at first, because I didn't feel anything different in my body.

A week passed. The pain began then, in short intervals every few days. They gave me medication to dull the pain. It subsided for a while, before returning full on with more frequency, and I found myself in excruciating pain at least once every six hours. Everyday, I ticked off the days on my calendar to my death day, when the doctor said he would have to remove the heart surgically. He'd given me the option to peacefully die through injection before the set time if the hurting was unbearable, but I refused. I still didn't know why, though.

Those days were torture to me. I knew I was dying, and there isn't a worse feeling than knowing that your string of life was being slowly snipped off, an inch a day.

The day of the surgery came around. I was exhausted and drained of all my energy after wrestling with pain and death over the past month. Nothing had been achieved in the previous few weeks, and I wondered if I should've taken the shot before, because I had endured through so much without reaping any benefit from it. Only if I could see Kairi one more time, then I'd be able to die a happy man.

Someone up above must've really liked me, because that day, Kairi came back. I was so overjoyed, that I wanted to tell her about everything and anything that I possibly could –to fill in the times that I had the chance to go up and talk to her, but I didn't. To catch up on the days that we missed. I wanted to tell her about my life, my happiness, my pain, and my soon-to-be death.

But when I saw her weak smile, I knew something was wrong, so I kept my mouth shut. I immediately knew what it was about, too. I was able to read Kairi like a book, after having watched her so many times before.

_Sora. _

Sora was the cause. I didn't know exactly what happened, but I knew that it was about him. It was obvious because she avoided making eye contact with me, or even looking directly at my face. I had always been told by people that I reminded them of Sora, because of my eyes and my face. Even the elementary teacher and Sora himself had mentioned it to me before. I didn't think I was anything like Sora though; he was everything that I wasn't, and all that I wanted to be. After all, he was the only one to make Kairi smile her true smile.

But right now, I knew that when Kairi looked at me, I reminded her of Sora. And she had been hurt by him. I thought of the only thing that I could do, and asked her to a game of chess. Thankfully, she seemed to cheer up a bit at the request.

This time, I played seriously. There was no more need to keep losing. This was going to be the last time, anyway. She seemed surprised at my sudden change, but I guess that was to be expected. I wanted to cheer her up, too. I gave her what I hoped would be a motivational line – yes, me, ever the philosopher – and I guess it worked, because she _smiled._ Her true smile. At that instant, all my troubles and worries fly out the window. Who cared about death? I made Kairi _smile._ Then the nurse came in to take me out for my surgery, and she and Kairi helped me into the wheelchair.

"Thank you, Roxas."

It was a good life, to say the least.

"No problem. When we see each other again, you better bring me some ice cream. I love ice cream."

Maybe one day, instead me reminding her of Sora, _Sora _will remind her of _me_.

"Oh, yeah… About that… I'm sorry about stopping my hospital visits without telling you. I had school… you know, the works. I won't do it ever again. Sorry."

Maybe. I could hope, can't I? If a dead man was allowed to hope...

"Forgiven."

And maybe the place I was headed for was nice. Maybe I'll get wings to fly and move around freely.

"I'll come by tomorrow. I promise."

Kairi, you _better_ bring that ice cream along next time I see you.

I doubt they'll have any up in heaven, nor any angels as pretty as you.

"**I'll be** waiting."

_- fin_.

* * *

**A/N:** Roxas side. I never give Roxas a break. But he's like a ball of angst, so I can't help it! Feedback, please! 


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